We asked Time Out editors from cities across the world to re­veal their favourite hid­den gems – so that you can live like a lo­cal next time you travel.

Smack in the cen­tre of the buzzing bar­rio of Malasaña is Ojalá – a res­tau­rant with a sandy beach on the bot­tom floor, com­plete with a bar and fluffy cush­ions. Time Out Madrid à Calle de San An­drés, 1, 28004 Madrid, Spain. +34 915 232 747. grupo­la­musa.com/restaurante-ojala.

7 A trop­i­cal oa­sis in a bru­tal­ist arts complex in Lon­don The Bar­bican is a vast 1960s con­crete housing estate and arts complex, and if you’re into mod­ernist de­sign it’s pretty

amaz­ing. What a lot of peo­ple don’t know is that it also houses the Bar­bican Con­ser­va­tory – the sec­ond big­gest con­ser­va­tory in Lon­don and a hid­den oa­sis filled with trop­i­cal plants. Time Out Lon­don à Silk St, Lon­don EC2Y 8DS, UK. +44 20 7638 4141. bar­bican.org.uk.

6 An award-win­ning bar in a back-al­ley base­ment in Singapore The en­trance to Op­er­a­tion Dag­ger – un­washed floor, plain glass door, il­leg­i­ble scrib­bling on the top – is so non­de­script that even the build­ing it’s in doesn’t have a

name. It opens to a dingy stair­case that leads fur­ther down to the bar, which lies un­der a cloud of light bulbs and against a back­drop of shelves, on which stand rows of tinted bot­tles la­belled with a grid of faded draw­ings (codes for each liq­uid). Time Out Singapore à #B101, 7 Ann Siang Hill, Singapore 069791. +65 6438 4057.

Vis­age One and turns it into a jazz bar with some of the city’s best mu­si­cians play­ing nose-to-nose with the small group of mu­sic lovers that man­age to get in. Time Out Hong Kongà 93 Hol­ly­wood Rd, Cen­tral, Hong Kong. +852 2523 8988.

4 Free en­try into Barcelona’s most beau­ti­ful church Did you know that there is free en­try into Gaudí’s un­fin­ished mas­ter­piece, the Basílica de la

Sagrada Família, dur­ing Sun­day mass ev­ery week at 9am (en­try nor­mally starts at 15 eu­ros)? You’re wel­come to go in and have a look around if you are re­spect­ful of those who are there for mass or prayer. If you’re lucky, you might even catch a choir per­for­mance. Time Out Barcelona

3 A mu­seum in an elevator shaft in New York Since 2012, New York’s small­est mu­seum, called Mmu­se­umm, has been dis­play­ing the seem­ingly or­di­nary as ex­tra­or­di­nary in a tiny aban­doned Tribeca elevator shaft. Od­di­ties and quirky ob­jects like a col­lec­tion of corn­flakes (yes, as in the ce­real) and ‘not bombs’ (items like a Taco Bell wrap­per and a dildo with an LED light that were once mis­taken for bombs) are dis­played on the brightly lit shelves. Time Out New Yorkà4 Cort­landt Al­ley, New York, NY 10013, USA. +1 888 763 8839. www.mmu­se­umm.com.

2 Sky­line views from a bath­room in Chicago

Chicago has no short­age of breath­tak­ing views, but one of the city’s most un­der­cover vis­tas can be found in a ladies’ re­stroom (sorry, dudes). Take in the sprawl­ing sky­line from the bath­room at the Sig­na­ture

Lounge on the 96th floor of the John Han­cock Cen­ter. Time Out Chicagoà875 N Michi­gan Ave, Chicago, IL 60611, USA. +312.787 9596. www.sig­na­ture­room.com.

1 Rope swings in San Francisco parks

Rope swings are hid­den all over San Francisco’s many parks, of­fer­ing some of the best views in the city. Per­haps the two most fa­mous swings are at the top of

Billy Goat Hill, where res­i­dents can swing while ad­mir­ing an ex­pan­sive view of down­town SF, and Kirby Cove in Marin, where you’ll find the rope swing dan­gling be­tween two old trees with a di­rect view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Time Out San Francisco